- Search Tools
- Primary Searching Tools
- Keyword Searching
- Subject Searching
- Title Searching
- Author Searching
- Online Catalog
- Databases
- The Web
The Web, page 2 of 5
Web Directories
A web directory is a service that offers a collection of links to Internet resources submitted by site creators or evaluators and organized into subject categories, much like library catalogs. Directory services use selection criteria for choosing links to include, although the selectivity varies among services. Most directories include a search engine to query the directory service.
Commercial directories cater to the general public and are competing for user traffic (helps when selling advertisement space). Academic and professional directories are often created and maintained by subject experts to support the needs of researchers.
Yahoo! is one of the most recognized of the commercial web directories. It does not evaluate content, but categorizes web sites submitted into subject areas.
The Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/) is an example of an academic web directory of selective subject collections that have been evaluated and annotated for academic researchers by the IPL staff.